Dillon Hemmingway is not your average sixteen-year-old jock. He's as smart and tender as he is big and athletic. But his intellect can't make sense of his older brother's suicide. And his heart can't reconcile his blossoming romantic feelings for his best friend, Jennifer Lawless --- nor her puzzling reaction to the changes.

To help him cope with the emotional details, Dillon turns to a journal --- letters to a brother dead and gone. In time, he comes to understand that he and Jennifer have more than sports in common. They share a deep sense of guilt and long-standing pain. And in recognizing their similarities, they also intuitively realize they can help each other overcome their fears.

In CHINESE HANDCUFFS, Chris Crutcher draws from his experience as an athlete, educator and therapist to create realistic teenage characterizations. He crafts an unflinching story that deals with the dirty little secrets of incest, rape, suicide and emotional abuse. While we'd like to think these topics are foreign to young adults, the truth is, they are facts of life all too real.

CHINESE HANDCUFFS tells the story of fear and isolation, of hopelessness and intimidation. But it also tells the tale of escape and redemption --- of courageously putting fear behind us in favor of lasting personal power.

Like all Crutcher novels, CHINESE HANDCUFFS offers no easy answers, no happily-ever-after lies. Like all Crutcher novels, this is the story of hope; the celebration of heroics, one brave step at a time. It is a riveting read for even reluctant reader teens --- and any adult that loves them.

  --- Reviewed by Kelly Milner Halls

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